Bush: 9/11 "Nothing" To Do With Iraq

Via Crooks and Liars, who have the video, but here's the transcript:

QUESTION: A lot of the consequences you mentioned for pulling out seem like maybe they never would have been there if we hadn’t gone in. How do you square all of that?

BUSH: I square it because imagine a world in which you had Saddam Hussein, who had the capacity to make a weapon of mass destruction, who was paying suiciders to kill innocent life, who had relations with Zarqawi.

You know, I’ve heard this theory about, you know, everything was just fine until we arrived [in Iraq] and — you know, the stir-up-the-hornet’s- nest theory. It just doesn’t hold water, as far as I’m concerned.

The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East. They were …

QUESTION: What did Iraqi have to do with that?

BUSH: What did Iraq have to do with what?

QUESTION: The attacks upon the World Trade Center.

BUSH: Nothing. . . . .Except for it’s part of — and nobody’s ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a — Iraq — the lesson of September the 11th is: Take threats before they fully materialize...[Emphasis Mine - C]

Only Crooks and Liars does remember when someone in the administration suggested that Saddam ordered the attack - the Vice President - an assertion that quickly became accepted fact among rightwing pundits.

However, I think we can now finally take Dubya at his bumbling word and accept that invading Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11...and nothing to do with a clear and present danger to America. Even so, Bush isn't for cutting and running or even changing the course:

President Bush said Monday the United States would lose "our soul as a nation" if it gave up on the Iraq war now, warning it would be a "disaster" if U.S. troops left before the new Iraqi government can control the country.

"We're not leaving so long as I'm president," an animated Bush said in a wide-ranging White House press conference. "That would be a huge mistake." He conceded, though, that the war was "straining the psyche of our country" with U.S. deaths now standing at more than 2,600.

...Asked if the continued violence in Iraq was a sign the American strategy was not working there, Bush said, "If I didn't think the Iraq policy would work, I'd change it."

Which I'm pretty sure will have Rick Moran of Right Wing Nut House and a whole host of other conservative pundits and "fighting keyboarders" for whom Dubya has lost his heroic shine crying in their cocoa at their keyboards tonight.

(I, having been there, remember how Margaret Thatcher's famous "the lady's not for turning" speech eventually set in stone her image as a recalcitrant despot who simply had to be dumped for the good of the conservative party's chances in future elections. I think Bush just turned that corner too.)

John Kerry quickly responded with what will doubtless become the Democrat's answer - and one I feel will worry the Republican faithful as it gets repeated by other, more charismatic and electable, Dem leaders:

This Administration’s Iraq policy has been an unmitigated disaster and has set us back in the War on Terror. Iran is profiting because the United States is bogged down in Iraq. Our troops are stuck in a civil war. The violence is worse than ever. 100 Iraqi civilians are being killed every day in a brutal civil war that Administration still denies, and it’s getting worse every month. Over 9,000 Iraqis have died in the last three months alone. Since the bombing in Samarra, 182,000 Iraqis have fled their homes due to sectarian violence and intimidation. IED attacks against American troops have nearly doubled since January.

We must change course in Iraq. We need to set a date to force Iraqis to stand up for Iraq, force the Administration to finally do the diplomacy necessary to find the political solution our generals say is needed, move American troops to an over the horizon position, and refocus the United States on waging and winning an effective War on Terror.”

Unfortunately, that isn't an answer either. The blowback from Bush's fiasco will make Kerry's idea of a plan look as laughably incompetent as his adversary's. Kerry was always a year or so behind reality - which is at least better than Bush, who can't find it with both hands, a roadmap and a flashlight.